Brush



00:. 12, 1943. o. 1.. MIILLER BRUSH Filed May 3, 1941 Jrra L. 44/1156 4% .gttvrneg;

Patented Oct. 12, 1943 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

, 2,331,412 i r i BRUSH Otto L. Miller, Memphis, Tenn. Application May 3,1941, Serial assimo 2 Claims.

This invention relates to scrubbing brushes, and particularly to brushes of a type which are adapted to remove substances of a more or less solid nature from the surface of the article to be cleaned.

It has long been known that the ends of the fibers, as of a block of wood, might be pounded and broken apart in more or less the nature of the bristles of a brush, and that in some forms of extremely fine fibered material, such as the bark of the redwood, or others of the large trees of California, might be so separated as to form quite a soft brush suitable even for the brushing 'of the fiber has, but such structures are far from efficient for many kinds of cleaning and are extremely hard and costly to produce for 1 commercial markets.

As contrasted with such structures, this invention relates to a brush made from a block of fibrous material, such as wood, in which the fibers of the material are cut across from time to time and in such cutting are slightly frayed adjaceno the cuts and thereby caused to be displaced outwardly from the general surface of the block with the-ends of the fibers in opposed relation on opposites of each cut.

The need of such a device is perhaps most apparent to autoists who often encounter swarms of bugs, or at least during miles of travel, accumulate on the wind shield quite an amount of foreign substance by striking bugs from time to time, this accumulation having a tendency to smear when cleaning is attem'ptedand being, to say the least, an annoying feature more specially of night travel.

The objects of the invention are to provide a brush, and a method for making such a brush, which will effectually accomplish the removal of such objects from glass and/ornumerous other surfaces.

The means by which the foregoing and other objects are accomplished and the manner of their accomplishment will readily be understood from the following specification upon reference to the accompanying drawing, which is a perspective view, approximately full size, of one of the preferred embodiments of my invention.

Referring now to the drawing:

The block shown has a length somewhat greater than its width and a thickness perhaps a third of its width, the shown sizes or relation of the dimensions not being of the essence of the invention.

This block preferably is of wood, such as cottonwood, elm or other wood, having reasonably fine fibers extending lengthwise and in sub-' stantial parallelism. Obviously the material might be an artificially constructed block having similar fine fibers alined in a generally parallel direction.

The surfaces of this block which are to be used as brush surfaces, as the upper and lower surfaces II and I2, are preferably rough, that is, such surfaces as are produced by an ordinary saw cut in cuttingout the lumber and the remaining surfaces may also be rough, though if a more finished structure is desired they may be dressed and polished.

Primarily the faces II and I2 of the block are transversely interrupted, as by grooves 13, at uniform intervals, these grooves preferably being saw cuts so made asto displace or fray the ends l5 of the surface fibers and the fibers immediately adjacent the surface on both sides of each saw cut, the same operation being preferably performed on both faces of the block, although obviously one only of the faces might be so treated. It will be understood also that-the edges of the block l9 and 2! might similarly be treated if desired, such a finishing being, particularly indicated where a block is, as it may be, of square cross section. If desired the faces of the block may also be cut to form lengthwise grooves 23, these latter grooves having general parallelism with the fibers of the material, and probably being advantageous in cleansing the block during and after use..

In making the block the wood is cut into strips of the desired thickness and width and cut into block length. These blocks are then grooved lengthwise and transversely at uniform intervals, ordinarily of about one-half inch,oit being immaterial which grooving is done first, though ordinarily the longitudinal grooves are first formed and then the transverse grooves, the essential being that the transverse grooving be so done as to fray the edges of the grooves at and immediately underlying the surfaces of the block.

In using the brush it is ordinarily dipped in water, which may or may not contain soap, and the surface to be cleansed is brushed with a back and forth longitudinal movement of the block against the glass or other article to be cleaned, the end fibers on one side of the cuts pushing off the substance to be removed as the brush is moved in one direction and the end surfaces of the fibers on the opposite sides of the cuts similarly acting when the brush is moved in the opposite direction. As accumulation occurs on the brush it is rinsed in water from time to time and the operation repeated until in a surprisingly short time cleansing of the surface is effected.

Where varnished or similar surfaces, as of furniture, are brushed it is usually preferable to soak the brush in water before use, but even if this is not done the brush may be used on such surfaces with remarkable freedom from scratch- It will be understood that While the grooves in the block are shown at right angles and at right angles to the fibers that it is not my intention to confine myself to such right angle construction, the essential point being that the fibers are cut or broken in two and it being obvious that this might be done as by diagonal or even ir regular cuts.

It will further be understood that the grooves may be extremely shallow, in fact, that they may be so shallow as not to warrant the use of the term groove and it is the intention. of certain of the appended claims to purposely omit such limitation.

I claim:

1. A brush comprising a rectangular block of fibrous wood, having the fibers extending lengthwise, two opposite faces of said block lying substantially along said fibers being transversely and longitudinally grooved at substantially uniform intervals, fiber ends formed by said transverse grooving being outwardly frayed beyond the general surface of the related said face between said grooves.

2. A brush comprising a block having a substantially fiat face, said block being of fibrous material having fibers extending in the same direction and substantially parallel 'to said face, the fibers along said face being interrupted at intervals transversely across said face and said interrupted fibers frayed outwardly beyond the genera surface of said face.

OTTO L.. MILLER. 

